KALAMAZOO (MICH.) Zydiora “Ziggy” Jones was all giggly as she stood on her tiptoes to take took the microphone in front of nearly 500 people in Kalamazoo’s Chenery Auditorium. Nine-year-old Ziggy and other Explorers had just listed to a lecture by ornithologist (bird-watching expert) Dr. J. Drew Lanham and it was her turn to ask him a question.

“Where is your favorite place to watch birds?” she asked Dr. Lanham, who leaned over the stage to answer her.

“My favorite place to watch birds is wherever I am,” he said. As the audience chuckled and clapped for Ziggy, Lanham shared how his visit to Kalamazoo has allowed him to add the Nature Center to his list of favorite places to watch birds.

Lanham’s sense of humor and down-to-earth knowledge of birds has made him one of their “Coolest People to Meet.” Lanham, an ornithologist, professor, and poet, was the special guest of the Kalamazoo Nature Center as part of its Terry Todd International Speaker Series on September 12th. His love for birds captivated community members and bird enthusiasts as he shared his love and admiration for birds. The author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, expressed that as an African American man, he loves and admires the freedom of birds that many African American men rarely feel. He shared how he always dreamed of flying like birds; even attempting to create his own wings and fly as a child.

The event was co-sponsored by the local Audubon Society of Kalamazoo (ASK), an organization the Explorers know well. The students took part in a day of bird-watching with ASK in the spring to hear and see birds from their area. In addition, the Explorers’ namesake, Merze Tate, was honored with the naming of a local Peregrin Falcon. The bird later died after crashing into a pole near its nest in downtown Kalamazoo. *See video here:

During Lanham’s visit, he also took time to watch birds and have lunch with the students of Phoenix Academy, a Kalamazoo Public School. Lanham is a native of Edgefield and Aiken, South Carolina. He holds an endowed chair as an Alumni Distinguished Professor and was an Alumni Master Teacher in 2012. Dr. Lanham is a widely published author and award-nominated poet, writing about his experiences as a birder, hunter, and wild, wandering soul. He is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature and Sparrow Envy. 

While his accomplishments are to be admired, youth connect with his vulnerability and honesty about how writing about birds gives him the “wings to fly.” Sasha Hollins also admired his connection to birds and asked Lanham, “What would you say to birds if you could have a conversation with them?”

The audience laughed as Sasha bravely stood for his answer. He shared a story about a Scarlet Tanager that, for three years, migrated from Peru to the same branch on his tree in South Carolina for three years in a row. What would he say to that bird?

Lanham shared: “I would say (to the bird), thank you for flying thousands of miles over your lifetime to bless me with your presence.”

Stay tuned for the full story in our upcoming Girls Can! Fall edition and a video of our meeting with Dr. Lanham and the local Audubon Society of Kalamazoo!